RacerX put out a cool little comparison on the success Chase had between the 2 brands and Chase had more wins (17 vs 14) on the KTM with roughly 2/3 the starts. Had one outdoor title on each brand. He had more podiums (36 vs 47) on the Honda but with way more starts (56 vs 86). Had plenty of gnarly crashes on both!
So, having read the article on RacerX with Matthes about this move to green, he sounded pretty grumpy on the KTM experience yet his results say otherwise. Something smells rotten in the state of Denmark here, and I'm just not buying it. The dude is fast as greased lightening most of the time, and I am a fan, but I'm a skeptical fan at this point.
The reality is that his level of success was completely dependent on other guys having issues.
If Jett was gone, he won more. Won the sx title when tomac tore his Achilles.
Whether Jett was there more or less directly correlates to his success
What are you skeptical of?
He'll be fine. Great riders perform at least within a ~5% variance no matter what bike they're on, unless something major is wrong or they give up (cough cough Prado).
I would argue that his 2025 SX season was his best SX performance to date. He didn't get the title, but his 2023 title was largely due to all other legitimate competition getting injured with 2-3 rounds left. I know Jett and Eli got injured in '25, but Webb stayed healthy and put in arguably the best season of his career as well. Sexton really shot himself in the foot with a few of those mid-season blunders, but his form in the last 8 rounds was phenomenal (won 5, placed 2nd in 2, and the errant 6th in the Foxborough mud race).
Honestly, his biggest issue seems to be putting together a good SX and MX season within the same calendar year. I think it's a safe bet to expect him to finish top 2 or 3 in at least one of the major championships each season.
You are right but I hate when people say that. He can’t help who got hurt. He works hard to be durable and has done a good job of that for the most part. That has to be acknowledged as well.
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This isn't really a fair comparison as a lot of those starts on the Honda were him learning how to win. A more fair comparison would be compare the last two years at Honda and the two years at KTM.
I'm skeptical of his capacity to perform at the same level he has on both the Honda and the KTM.
Hes gonna do better on the kawi than he did on the ktm or Honda. This is the bike he wanted to be on when he left Honda i was told by a few people that would know but couldn't make it work with JA and AC being up in the air at the time.
I think this chassis is gonna suit him better than the cr or sx. The motor I think already does everything he wants. Prado has a very particular riding style engine wise..
But then his first year at KTM was learning that bike.
So really you’re narrowed down to his last year at Honda vs his last year at KTM.
And then he had his last year at KTM with two of his main contenders out of SX (Tomac & Jett) which UPS his win tally, and himself out of outdoors which HURTS his tally.
comparing this data really is a pointless exercise.
No it's not the same comparison. I'm talking the first 2.5 years he was learning on a 450 in general. Chase didn't start winning on a 450 right away. It took him time to put it together like most people who aren't freaks, he started winning consistently in year 3 of his career.
By the time he moved to KTM he was a title winner and many time race winner. Apples to oranges comparison.
Chase looked absolutely dialed at times on the KTM—-way better than on the Honda. Other times, he looked like he was riding “Christine” and waiting for the pumpkin to attack him.
My memory is garbage, but I don’t remember any last place to first place rides on the Honda like he did at Pala on the KTM. That one was wild..
This goes all the way back to his first supercross title. Sexton had not won a professional race until Forker crashed out. Chase is an incredible rider who’s had some luck when it comes to winning some titles. But he’s had his fare share of bad luck too, just the way it goes.
He cant controll who stays healthy ,100 percent correct. It was very obvious why he started winning after jett got hurt . It was annoying to hear people act like he found another gear ,the second place guy started winning after the first place guy didnt like up.
Hangtown 2024, it was insane.
Is there a link to this chart?
Where did Chase win an outdoor title on "each brand"? He only won outdoors '24 on KTM, he won zero titles in MX on Honda.
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